Page 51 of Here With Me

Sadie lifted one shoulder. “I mean, I have Lottie. That’s the biggest blessing I’ve ever gotten. But the path here has been bumpy. And it’s not final until the adoption hearing in a few weeks. But I have planned for everything, so it should be fine.”

He opened his mouth to question her further, but she tilted her head back and a nervous laugh bubbled out, and her cheeks turned that beautiful shade of pink. “This feels an awful lot like a first date.”

David glanced at the breadbasket and her water glass. “First date jitters and all.”

“The view is a little different this time.” Sadie studied him, her gaze wandering from his hairline down to his shoulders.

The view had changed. She was even more beautiful than when they were younger.

“I look more and more like my dad.” David slowly reached for a slice of bread when Sadie picked up her water for a drink. He set the bread on his plate, buttered it, and took a bite.

Sadie’s teasing glint turned serious. “In all our years of dating, you’ve never mentioned your dad.”

The bread sat on his plate. The first bite had been delicious, but it didn’t hold any more appeal. “Probably because I don’t like to talk about him.”

Sadie stretched her arm across the table and squeezed his hand. Her warm, soft skin gentle and soothing. “Why?”

Her thumb made small circles on his hand, and he watched the movement. It would be easy to change the subject, and she’d let it drop. He released a breath.

If there would ever be a future between them, he had to start opening up, let her in. Talk about the things that shaped him. Sadie must have seen the resignation on his face, thinking he was shutting her out. She nodded sadly and slowly pulled her hand away.

But he stopped her movement by placing his hand on hers. “That summer that Leah and Caroline went to stay with Nate’s family, Mom and Dad were traveling. It was the summer before my senior year of high school. I stayed home for my summer job, and one day, a woman came by the apartment looking for my dad. She’d looked him up and found our address. When I asked how she knew my dad, she was surprised. Didn’t seem to know he was married. She didn’t say anything explicit, but I could read between the lines. She was my dad’s mistress.”

The waiter came and set their meals in front of them. They sat back, but as the waiter left, Sadie pushed her plate to the side, offering her hand. David intertwined their fingers again, and Sadie held tight. “I’m so sorry, David. I can’t imagine.”

David looked down, the memories coming fast. He gripped Sadie’s hand, like a lifeline. He didn’t like to walk down memory lane because the memories liked to pull him in, but with Sadie’s hand in his, he had someone to ground him. “I debated if I should tell my mom. She’d been so excited to travel with my dad. The trip was to help them reconnect.”

David could still see the haunted expression the confession had put on his mom’s face. It had never left. “Mom was devastated when I told her, and I vowed never to think or talk about my dad again. But even so, there are times when I wish I wouldn’t have told my mom.”

“You can’t say that. She needed to know.”

“But if I hadn’t told her, maybe they wouldn’t have split. Maybe she wouldn’t have gotten sick. The doctors said it was a virus, and her body just couldn’t fight any more. But maybe if my dad was there, she would have had more reasons to live. More reasons to fight.”

Sadie’s hand tightened. “I think she would have wanted to know. Could you imagine the pain she would have experienced if she found out your dad was cheating and that you knew? You did the right thing.”

David studied their hands, interwoven together on the table. A team, and one he wouldn’t mind being on long-term. “I don’t know what the future holds, Sadie. Without a spot to return to in Costa Rica…”

He had a few weeks to make a decision, and he needed to let his supporters know what he was going to do.

Sadie sat back in the booth. The lights behind her highlighted the colors in her hair as it hung over her shoulder. “So, you’re working unpaid at Hoover’s because…”

“The mission board wanted me to be involved in the community.” But now? He wanted to be there for Sadie. Help her make a go of the store.

“If you’re staying, you’re going to need a paying job. I can’t do that right now. You’ve seen the books.”

“I’m not asking you to pay me. I’d like to continue on at the store. Maybe I could help you get the numbers back into the black, and then we could reconsider a paid position? Maybe you could pay me for a season then?” If he was still in Heritage. Not that he knew where else he would go. But he’d like to see how things worked out with Sadie. See if he could have a future here. “What if we plan a grand reopening? Perhaps for the weekend of the town festival. We could start advertising now—putting flyers in the windows, on the community boards around town, and even online. We can tell our regular customers, and it will be a Hoover’s-has-new-management celebration.”

“You know, it might work. That’s just before I pay the bank the final payment. Maybe it could help push me over the top to have enough. Especially if people pay their tabs.”

“Whatever you want to celebrate. I’ll be there for it all.” For Lottie’s adoption, for meeting bills, for a grand reopening. For coffee over breakfast—Okay, maybe he was getting ahead of himself. That was too serious. He had a little time to pray about things, figure out what direction God wanted him to go. Until then, he’d like to continue to explore whatever was happening between him and Sadie. Maybe it was a second chance. Maybe it was God opening doors. Maybe it was David healing wounds he’d left in his wake.

Or maybe, just maybe, it was a chance for a new beginning.

ten

If only the beauty of her mom’s script as she wrote out accounting problems could change the ugly bottom line in the red ledger. Sadie sat with her mom at her parents’ house, looking over the books.

Her mom tapped her pencil on the table. “It’s not that bad, really. We have three outstanding lines of credit that have now been paid in full.”

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